The Best-Run Businesses Run SAP

Feels Like the First Time…it’s very apropos that this Foreigner song popped into my head as I sat down to write this day one recap of the ASUG SAP BusinessObjects User Conference. Not only is Foreigner the entertainment for this year’s conference, but this is also the first time I’ve had the pleasure of attending the event — and a pleasure it was.

Observations:

• The energy is amazing – both from attendees and the speakers. I’ve never met more-passionate software users. And talk about longevity. More than a third of the attendees at Sanjay Poonen’s keynote today are ringing in 10+ years.
• There’s a whole lot of innovation going on, from mobile to big data to cloud and the launch of SAP BusinessObjects EPM OnDemand. If you’re interested in hearing more, watch the replay of Sanjay’s keynote on the SAP virtual platform or read Timo Elliott’s excellent summary. Timo sure made my job a lot easier. I hope he does a repeat for John Schweitzer’s Tuesday keynote!
• The best quote of the day? The clear winner (and there were many good ones) was by Gabriel Orthous of McKesson during Sanjay’s keynote: “You can’t spell mobile without BI.” In other words, mobile and BI are like a lot of other dynamic duos. They’re each okay by themselves, but together? All manner of things are possible.
• SAP knows how to throw a party. The customer reception featured a Bollywood theme, complete with music, food, belly dancers, a sword swallower/fire eater, and henna tattoo artists. In fact, the background noise on the last three videos is from the party – and we were filming quite a ways from where the action was happening.

I could go on, but there’s lots of great stuff to share from day one. Make sure to check them out.

Videos:

• Dave Williams, senior director SAP EPM solution marketing, on SAP EPM OnDemand add-on for Microsoft Office

• Jamie Oswald, an SAP mentor and senior BI analyst at Arch Coal, Inc., on how SAP BusinessObjects business intelligence 4.0 is ready to go
• Padmini Ranganathan, senior director, solutions marketing, analytics at SAP, on the value of structured and unstructured data mash-ups
• Sean Johnson, director of EPM solution management, on SAP EPM OnDemand and the SAP EPM unwired mobile client

Releases & Posts:

• SAP Raises the Bar in Performance Management Market with New Cloud Solution (press release, screen shots)
• There’s Something New in Performance Management Today (blog post)

Tomorrow should be just as fun – think Developer Wars. So, look for another summary post on day two tomorrow.